PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been released from prison, two months after he began a 10-year jail sentence for corruption. The release came hours after a court suspended the sentences of Sharif and his daughter Maryam, who were jailed shortly before July’s general election.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lost to Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) later that month.
The decision came during the Sharifs’ appeal. They have denied wrongdoing.
The car carrying Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law Safdar Awan was showered with rose petals by supporters as their convoy left Adiala jail.
The three then flew to Lahore, where they were met by more jubilant supporters.
Their release comes just a week after Sharif’s wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, died from cancer in London.
They were briefly allowed out of prison in Rawalpindi to attend her funeral in Lahore before being imprisoned again.
Sharif was sentenced in July after being found guilty of corrupt practices related to the ownership of four luxury properties in central London linked to his family.
He says the charges are politically motivated. The three-time prime minister was ousted from power a year earlier by Pakistan’s Supreme Court, after his children were linked to offshore companies in the Panama Papers leaks of 2015.
His daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, received seven years for abetting a crime and one year for not co-operating – sentences which were due to run concurrently – while son-in-law Safdar Awan was given a one-year sentence for not co-operating.
The convictions also barred them from seeking public office for up to 10 years after release.
All three had the jail sentences imposed by the lower court on July 6, suspended by Islamabad’s high court, as part of an appeals hearing.
“The prosecution has failed to show the properties belong to Nawaz Sharif. It also failed to prove how was Maryam Nawaz sentenced under the same charge sheet which convicted Nawaz Sharif,” Justice Athar Minallah told the court.
Their convictions remain under appeal within the top court, but a date for a hearing has yet to be fixed.
The anti-graft body that launched the case, the National Accountability Bureau, can still appeal to the Supreme Court against the latest ruling.
The trio were released on bail of $4,000 (£3,000) each on Wednesday evening.